Thoughts on ceiling?

[rmckee]

Hey guys-

So I bought a house last fall, 2br/2ba/2 car garage, on the outskirts of Boston. Three hours after signing the mortgage papers I got on a plane and flew away for 6 weeks (I travel 2/3 of the year)... 6 days after buying the place my girlfriend went by to get the new mail and discovered that the city sewage had backed up into the place. Everywhere. Flooded with s**t.

Welcome to homeownership!

So, what I've got is an almost-6-month long insurance claim that's topping $100k. The walls were torn out, the 100 year old floors were thrown out, and the place was practically gutted. I've learned a lot about the house in the process, but it's been mentally and emotionally exhausting. I've used the opportunity to do all the fun stuff, recessed LEDs in every room, 3-wire fan boxes in the ceilings, ceiling speakers in every room wired through a distribution amplifier where the network rack is going, 1,500 feet of CAT-6 ethernet, routed to each wall in each room, and 1,000' of RG-6 coax for TV to each wall as well. It's been fun in that regard.

I'm here with a question for each of you... The sewage that soaked through the floor proceeded to soak through the insulation in the ceiling below it, and through the drywall of the garage ceiling. For the last 5 months since the remediation company tore everything out of the place, the garage ceiling has been wide open, allowing me to run all these fun cables around the place. The time has now come to talk about putting a new ceiling in, and I've got a few options, but am also somewhat restricted. Prior to the flood, the original cast iron pipes were hanging below the ceiling line, lowest point about 6' 5" off the ground. In the insurance process all of the pipes have been changed to PVC, and I pushed hard on the plumbing company to move everything up as high as they could... as such, I gained about 8" of clearance over Bay #1. Bay #2 has no piping above it, and can be a full 8' ceiling height.

The contractor offered me two options...

1) Drywall ceiling at 8' all the way across, with boxed in framing/strapping around the lower hanging PVC pipes where they protrude. Unfortunately it's through the middle of the ceiling, so it'd be kind of ugly, but it would box them in entirely and make it a somewhat cleaner appearance.

2) Drop ceiling tiles at 2 different heights. Bay #2 as close to 8' as possible, bay #1 at the lowest point of the PVC, so just over 7' off the ground.

My opinions are as such, the drywall is great and yields me the highest height possible, but isn't completely smooth. I can probably live with that. It also takes away any access to the piping should that ever be necessary. The drop-ceiling is less attractive in my eye (if it was 14' ceiling height I might not feel the same way, but it's low enough to be seen)... it does however allow me access to run new wires, visit the pipes if ever necessary, etc.

I'm going to attach some photos to give you an idea, but please don't judge the garage... remember- I haven't moved in yet, let alone put strapping/vapor barriers up and drywalled the cinderblock! I see potential for it.

Side details: It'll be home to by rolling tool carts, a overlanding 1999 Wrangler on 35s (I see this in Bay 2 with the ceiling height) and a 2012 A4.

Appreciate any and all feedback. Insurance covers the cost of everything so it's really up to me. P.S. I hope you all get a kick out of the dumbas$ that cut the main beam at the wall on the far side to fit a plumbing pipe through. That decision is about 10 years old.


- Ryan


How it looked when I bought it:

Post-Cast-Iron, with lifted PVC:

 

[Richard Cranium]

it may not look the best, but make the ceiling as high as possible in as much of the garage as you can.

 

[joelzip]

Drop ceilings will provide easy access to the utilities upstairs and running lines later in the garage. If you get another water stain or leak its easier to change a tile.

 

[North Run Grader]

Are you subject to meeting the current building codes for your area? Are permits required? As far as I know , attached garages must have a fire stop of some sort. Could be as simple as a layer of 5/8 fireboard with mud and taped joints. I'm not aware of any common type of dropped ceiling that would meet the code. Another thing to keep in mind is carbon monoxide entry into your living areas.
Personally I would fireboard the ceiling as high as I could get it and live with any needed bulkheads. If there are any plumbing issues in the future, the drywall aspect will be the cheapest part involved. If the budget allows, I would add as much insulation as I could afford above the ceiling. Spray foam being the easiest, but most expensive, rock wool insulation being #2 in cost. Without insulation the areas above the garage will always be colder unless you plan on heating the garage to a comfortable temperature for the duration of your heating season. I would rather pay the fixed costs once in insulation versus the ongoing cost of raising energy costs of continuously heating each cold season.

 

[kaymccampbell]

Box the pipes and drywall everything with fireproof board.
I just finished boxing in all my plumbing and ductwork. I used 1-5/8" steel studs and rails for the framing. It made the nightmare of soffit construction a happy dream.

 

[rmckee]

Thanks for the quick replies.

The ceiling would be insulated profusely either way, as the bedrooms are right above it. The contractor had mentioned a fire-retardant material that would be put up against the beams and then drop ceiling underneath, but I agree that getting as much height as possible would be best.

Meeting halfway between the two options, is it typical to have a hinged access door of types under the plumbing traps?

 

[matt_i]

I would do drywall, I would put up a couple of rectangular accesses, where, the drywall "cover" is screwed to the framing but not taped. Then, a rectangle of trim (could be 1x4s, or molding) is glued together & possibly biscuit-jointed for rigidity, then it is screwed up to cover the gap for the hole(s).

To access, get out impact driver, remove trim rectangle, remove drywall...if either ever got damaged or worn out from "over use" then both are easily replaced and painted back to match.

 

[Kaizen]

living in new England and looking at that all I can see is frozen traps and frozen pipes. if nothing else can be done to raise or relocate those pipes i'd make a heated bulkhead or even go so far as making a wall under it and giving up one garage bay. either way insulating above those pipes is going to be an issue. so whatever you do account for closing it perfectly from the garage and don't spend too much so when you have to rip it apart it wont hurt so much. living space above that garage i'd make sure its redone up to code. they are there to keep people from dying.

 

[Zeke]

They sure didn't put an over abundance of clean outs in that DWV.

 

[Cyberbear]

After seeing the plumbing layout, my first thought was access, if the plumbing needs further attention in the future. Perhaps try living with the drop ceiling for a time before going the permanent drywall decision.

 

[tab2]

I would use fire rated drywall as high up as possible. You can get 2'x2' fire rated access panels if you are looking for access. The last ones I bough from Kamco (commercial supplier in the area) were about $150 each. I'm sure you could do better but I wasn't paying for them.

That's cheaper than having someone rip it out and patch it later IF you have an issue. You will have some heat loss and make sure that whatever you one buy meets that time that is required by code. There will be a tag on the panel for it.

For example this one is for 90 minutes and you can paint it to match the wall color. From memory, 5/8" drywall is 60 minutes.


EDIT: I looked at the pictures a little more, put a larger one by the clean out and another by that p-trap. The one on the trap doesn't need to be as large.